BLM EFFECT: AFRICAN MEN PORTRAITS BY EUROPEANS FIND SPACE IN EXHIBITION FOR FIRST TIME

Wed 29 September 2021:

Two of the first portraits of persons of African heritage in the history of European art are being exhibited together in what can be described as a “Black Lives Matter” movement effect.

The curators of the Rijksmuseum claim that this is the first time in the museum’s 500-year history.

The show offers a snapshot of European society in the Renaissance period and includes for the first time in a single exhibition the two earliest individual portraits of Black men known in Europe — a painting by Jan Jansz Mostaert of a man in military attire who was possibly Christophle le More, a personal bodyguard to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and a 1508 drawing, “Portrait of an African Man,” in black chalk by Albrecht Duerer that is on loan from Vienna’s Albertina Collection.

This is the only known European solo portrait of a black African dating from the 15th/16th century. He was probably a soldier, as his gloves suggest he was accustomed to sword fighting. His name is possibly Christophle le More, a guard of Charles V, but this is not certain. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/3QBDoyjidZ

— Rijksmuseum (@rijksmuseum) September 28, 2021

Of Dürer’s drawing of a young man with a small beard and wearing a simple cloak, Matthias Ubl, the Rijksmuseum’s curator of early Netherlandish and German painting and stained glass, said: “We don’t know who he was or where they met but they must have met in either [his home town] Nuremberg or [on a trip] in Venice.

“We also don’t know why he drew him – for his own memory or to give it to the person in question? But it is so true to life, with no prejudices, just true to life, and this is so rare.”

More is known about Mostaert’s small panel portrait – the only individual painted portrait of a black African from the late middle ages and Renaissance period.

Portrayed as a Christian through a pilgrim’s badge on the sitter’s blood-red bonnet of Our Lady of Halle, a popular shrine near Brussels, there are signs of wealth in his appearance. He carries a bag on his hip decorated with pearls and gold thread.

His hand rests on his sword’s embellished hilt. Some have suggested the painting is a depiction of Saint Maurice, born in AD250 in Thebes, an ancient city in Upper Egypt.

From Tuesday, the museum in Amsterdam will be displaying over 100 portraits by Renaissance artists.

The exhibition Remember Me is on display until January 16th. It includes works from the years 1470 to 1570. It also looks into the motivations behind portraiture, a popular art form in the 1500s.

Albrecht Dürer’s 1508 sketch, discovered in the German painter’s workshop at the time of his death, and Jan Jansz Mostaert’s portrait, dating from 1525, are among the pieces on show.

When asked why it hadn’t been done previously, Friso Lammertse, curator of 17th century Dutch paintings at the Rijksmuseum, suggested that the items’ exclusion from such shows was due to a lack of interest in them.

“Things have changed only really recently, with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Lammertse said.

Photo: Albrecht Dürer’s 1508 sketch (left), discovered in the German painter’s workshop at the time of his death, and Jan Jansz Mostaert’s portrait, dating from about 1525. Photograph: c/o Rijksmuseum

(With inputs from agencies)

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